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Department of Philosophy / Courses / Archives / Summer 2014 (1144) / PHIL 120W
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PHIL 120W:  Introduction to Moral Philosophy

Summer Semester 2014 | Day | Burnaby

 

INSTRUCTOR: Simon Pollon, WMC 4616 (scp4@sfu.ca)

REQUIRED TEXT

  • Ethical Theory:  A Concise Anthology, 2nd edition.  Heimir Geirsson and Margaret R. Holmgren (eds).  Broadview Press, 2010.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The subject matter of this course, the branch of Philosophy known as ‘Normative Ethics,’ is primarily concerned with answering the question: “What should I do?” This is, of course, one of the most frequent and most vexing questions that we ask ourselves and others. The question is frequent because we know that many of our actions will affect others, and it is vexing because it is difficult to figure out how to take the feelings, well-being, and interests, etc., of others into account so as to not harm them, or, at least, not harm them any more than is necessary.

However, a Normative Ethical Theory does more than provide the answer to this question. Such theories also provide us with criteria for determining what makes an action the right one to perform, and, often at the same time, provides us with a method for determining which action we should perform in a given situation. In this course we will examine various broad groupings of Normative Ethical Theories: Divine Command Theory, Deontology, Utilitarianism, Ethical Egoism, and Virtue Ethics. In addition, this course will introduce related problems and questions of ‘Meta-Ethics’ (for example: What is ‘good’? What is ‘right’? What is an ought?), as they arise in our Normative Ethics centered discussions.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

  • Essay 1 (with revision) 20%
  • Midterm 15%
  • Essay 2 (with revision) 30%
  • Final exam 20%
  • Short written assignments (5) 10%
  • Tutorial participation 5%

Final versions of essays will be submitted to turnitin.com

Prerequisites:  Philosophy 120W has no prerequisites and may be applied towards the Certificate in Liberal Arts, the W-requirement, and the Breadth-Humanities requirement.  The course is a prerequisite for the upper division philosophy courses needed to complete a Certificate in Ethics. (http://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/undergrad/ethics_certificate.html).

Updated May 5, 2014